Wow you aint kidding Bri.

July 1 18,359 119,681

Talk about a tidal wave of fish! I am bringing my daughter down to the locks tonight to check it out.

Talked the wife into a quick trip to the locks last night after dinner. The sockeye were entering the ladder in big numbers. Hope these numbers hold for a couple more weeks.

About 10 more days like the last one and we shall be smoking some sockeye very soon.

WDFW and Tribe meet tomorrow to set opening date. My guess. noon Wednesday or Thursday.

"Hey boss, I don't feel too good, cough, cough,cough."

Cigar

Cigar, are they meeting tommorow or Wednesday? I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything. I hope they give at least a days notice, I've got to come from east of the mountains. Already (cough) starting to (hack-cough) feel sick!!

Oops, nevermind, it's tommorow. For some reason I had it in my head that it was Wednesday.

I would be surprised if they announced an opening this early. Once they update the run today, we should still only be about half way to the escapement goal. My guess is another week and a half to two weeks before they really know how the run will shape up to be. If you look at the data from previous years, this run has done a good headfake before with early numbers.

166,250 stay tuned to be suprised.

Looks like we get to wait some more. After meeting today they say it's still too early to decide. They will reevaluate again on the 9th. We need some big cout days.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/sockeye/counts.htm

Yep we have to wait another 4 days. I'm still not sure why they are waiting, in years past there have been seasons with less fish at this time. I gusse they just want to make sure.

Here's the story:

July 6, 2004
Contact: Steve Thiesfeld, (360) 902-2715


Lake Washington sockeye counts too low for fishery;
Co-managers will meet again July 9 to review data

OLYMPIA - Washington state and tribal salmon co-managers agreed today that counts of Lake Washington sockeye salmon are still too low to set fisheries.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and treaty Indian tribes will meet again Friday (July 9) and on July 13 to review updated data and assess the likelihood of opening fisheries. No recreational sockeye fisheries in Lake Washington will occur this weekend.

Even though more than 166,000 sockeye had been counted at the Ballard Locks fish ladder through July 5, fisheries managers say it is too early to determine if this year's run will be strong enough to support recreational and treaty fisheries.

Fisheries managers agree that the run size estimate must exceed 350,000 sockeye before seasons can be set.

I am crossing my fingers for an opening the last week of July. I am going to be going on 2 weeks of nights. I won't get off until 7am. Will not try to launch my boat that late and find a parking spot. Hopefully I don't miss another opening. I missed it last time because I could not find anyone to go.

This even made the news last night on King 5. It was a short blurb, but basically said that 350,000 were needed to make escapement, yet only half (180,000+) has shown up....yadda yadda yadda.
It would have been nice if they would have mentioned the dollars this fishery brings into the area and local business to peak a few more interests.

Kev

i have to wonder one thing...why does sockeye escapement have to be so high to have a season? the predicted escapement for kings this year in the nisqually is about 17,000 fish and we have a season...why is it that you need 300,000 sockeye or so to fish for them?

214k, looking decent so far. Earliest time for a season is probably the weekend of the 17th, most likely would happen after that though. If the counts will stay @ 10k or more for the next 10 days or so, should turn out good. We could have as many as 10 days left in the bulk of the run (or not) so it is doable. Sure could use a handful of big days to put this run over the hump.

Chum Man, that is an excellant question.
Why do they need so many for escapement purposes, when other species don't need that near that many?
Probably to provide Safeway with a future supply of sockeye................